A version of the famous book of Robert Louis Stevenson, set in a different environment: the future and the cosmic space.

A deeply flawed, yet highly enjoyable sci-fi update of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, directed by the man most suited to the job of shooting an 8-hour low budget science fiction miniseries. Well when you can’t find a “Doctor Who” director you dig up Antonio Margheriti I suppose? Back in the early 60’s, Margheriti had carved a nitch for himself with his many cheesy space operas such as “Battle of the Worlds” and “Wild, Wild Planet”.

Jim Hawkins is a young lad who helps his mother run a mom ‘n son hotel on some planet which accommodates to space travelers. One day, Jim’s life is complicated with an old sailor Billy Bones (played by Ernest Borgnine of The Opponent and Escape from New York) shows up and drunkenly raves about how he was on a space-pirate ship which stashed its treasure on a far off planet. Of course he is the only one who happens to have the map to this elusive planet and of course there’s pirates after the map as well. It isn’t long before Pew, the old blind man (played by a very bald Biagio Pelligra from Milano Violenta and From Corleone to Brooklyn) shows up to give Bones the black spot which causes him to have a fatal heart attack (or something). Jim somehow sneaks away with the map while space pirates raid his hotel and he hooks up with Doctor Livesy (David Warbeck from The Beyond and Miami Horror) and Squire Trelawny (Philippe Leroy from Mannaja and Covert Action). The two manage to raise a considerable sum of money and finance a mission to go find the planet, of course taking Jim along. As crew they employ hard-nosed Captain Smollet (Klaus Lowitsch from Cross of Iron) as captain and shady character Long John Silver (Anthony Quinn from Lion of the Desert and Jesus of Nazareth) as ship’s cook. Silver is sure to bring along his fair share of even shadier characters as ship’s hands, including such familiar faces as Al Yamanouchi (After the Fall of New York), Sal Borgese (The Big Racket), and Giovanni Lombardo Radice (Cannibal Ferox, City of the Living Dead). As can be expected, the crew eventually mutinies once they reach the planet, leaving the few loyal members to take up residence in an old biosphere-esque dome while Jim roams around the alien landscape, eventually encountering a lone castaway Ben Gunn.

We’ve all read the story or seen SOME adaptation of the film, so nothing here is really all that new except the setting.

The futuristic twist on the familiar story doesn’t really seem to add anything to the film at all. There are a couple special effects sequences which are impressive but exist for no reason. A good example of this would be the space walk exploration of a destroyed ship, or Jim’s attempt to get into the spaceship when it is stuck on autopilot in a huge sea. To his credit, Margheriti did use an earlier script written by Renato Castellani shortly before his passing, and out of respect for Mr. Castellani, Margheriti made no alterations to his original screenplay, for better or worse. The Hispanola, or the donut-shaped ship used throughout the film, seems to be several scale models; some at tall as a three story building while others about as big as a soccer ball. Acting-wise, the cast is surprisingly very good with the small amount of dialog they are given. Anthony Quinn is… well Anthony Quinn, seeming to have a surprising amount of fun with his “starring” role (though an obvious cut in pay). Giovanni Lombardo Radice comes off best as the lead villain who dies an extremely violent death via throwing-knife-in-the-face toward the end of the film…

Don’t go in expecting another Last Hunter or Cannibal Apocalypse though. Margheriti directs this lightly like a children’s film (for the most part) and hence a lot of the action scenes seem silly and schlocky. The best staged of these scenes has to be the climactic battle in dinosaur valley with Jim and the Doctor rolling boulders down a hill causing mayhem in the fragile labyrinth the pirates are trying to escape through. Some of these sets and effects are really quite impressive considering the obvious shoe-string budget the film was made on. The scenes in space are a little too obvious, with gravity only applying to SOME things… check out the sagging cable wire to see what I mean (things don’t hang in space).

Emilio Ruiz, who did the special effects for Juan Piquer Simon in Pieces and Slugs: The Movie, provides a lot of laughable miniatures which Margheriti lovingly films at all sorts of oddball camera angles. Actually the special effects vary wildly from OK to completely terrible, with some barely a step up from “Doctor Who”. Gianfranco Plenizio, who did the music for Django Strikes Again and Milano Violenta, once again provides some pretty ho-hum music, but thankfully it isn’t used too often. The photography by Sandro Mancori demonstrates a lot of the skill of full frame composition displayed earlier bay his father, Guglielmo, so it’s a wonder why his career never really took off like how Daniele Nannuzzi’s career mimicked that of his father Armando. There’s a lot of odd-ball camera angles from behind small objects and up from ground level, add to that some funny P.O.V. and the regulation tilted camera angles Margheriti always liked to experiment with (partly because they make his miniatures look bigger).

This film is wildly ambitious and overlong, but to tell you the truth, I like it this way. I think Margheriti is best when he is as long-winded as possible, as his special effects and photography are always fun to look at. This is the first time I have seen an entire Italian miniseries, and wouldn’t mind also tracking down the full versions of Yor, Paladins - Hearts and Armour, and Marco Polo… that is if they exist anywhere.

Reviews by:  Mike Martinez